Art Magic

The indisputable parity between Hindoo and Egyptian sacerdotalism, justifies the belief of many eminent scholars, that the famous books of Hermes, so pretentiously heralded forth to all subsequent ages as the writing of Thoth, "the secretary of the Gods," found their originals in the still existing four books of the Hindoo Vedas, and that those originals still exist, although the copies are said to have been lost, or only reproduced in fragments, treasured up as the most priceless gems of antiquity. The books of Hermes, like the Vedas, were divided into four parts, and subdivided into forty-two volumes.

They treated of the same subjects, were carried in procession in the same order, and by the same classes of Priests and Prophets. The treatises claimed from time to time to be reproduces as Hermetic wisdom, are direct paraphrases of Vedic writings, and the chief difference that exists between them is the value which posterity attaches to that which is unattainable, and the indifference with which it regards the treasures it still possesses. There can be no question that the Jewish Ark of the Covenant found its model in the Egyptian Oracleship; that the chest held so sacred as the repository of nameless treasures carried about in the celebration of Bacchic rites, is paraphrased from a similar instrument used in the Osiric mysteries, whilst the resemblance between the solar and phallic emblems, crosses, obelisks, pyramids, and temple services of india and Egypt, are too obvious to escape the notice of the most superficial observer. The sequence of descent from the rites performed at Benares to those of Heliopolis, and from thence to Eleuesis, may be clearly traced; in a word, whilst India may be regarded as the fatherland of myth and sacerdotal mystery, the entire East, including great Egypt, once splendid Babyionia, Palestine, Persia, Greece and Rome, all may be regarded as tributary nations, amongst whom the ages have parted the garments of the great Hindoo Messiah, the oft reincarnated original of all the worshiped Sun-gods of antiquity. We are aware that to many, these assertions will be deemed worthy only of an anonymous writer. "God understands!" And in that brief sentence is our recompense for all the misapprehension and wrong that our words may suffer at the hands of humanity.

The specialties of Egyptian magic were these. The priests of Egypt, who were the sole conservators of all the religious, spiritual, and metaphysical knowledge of their land - were perfect Adepts in the two great spiritual forces now called Magnetism and Psychology. In Egypt, as in India, the priestly caste included many grades, the highest of whom were the Prophets, a class who were obviously synonymous with the modern "Spirit mediums," that is persons in whom the gifts of the spirit were implanted by nature, and that without process of artistic culture.

Amongst the lower orders were those wonder workers who have obtained the name of magicians, and beneath them again, and not necessarily included in the priestly hierarchy at all, were itinerant ascetics, who performed marvelous feats by reason of natural magical endowments, quickened by culture and abstinent practices, called Dervishes, a class which finds an abundant representation throughout Egypt to this day.

The Egyptian priest, although an ascetic and rigid disciplinarian, did not practice the life-long and abnormal self-mortifications endured by the Fakeers of India and some of the Lamas of China. They were highly educated scientific men, and learned by experience that more potential virtues existed in nature, than were to be eliminated from the human body in a starved and mutilated condition. They understood the nature of the loadstone, the virtues of mineral and animal magnetism, which, together with the force of psychological impression, constituted a large portion of their theurgic practices. They perfectly understood the art of reading the inmost secrets of the Soul, of impressing the susceptible imagination by enchantment and fascination, of sending their own spirits forth from the body as clairvoyants, under the action of powerful will - in fact, they were masters of the arts now known as Mesmerism, Clairvoyance, Electro-biology, etc.

They also realized the virtues of magnets, gems, herbs, drugs and fumigations, and employed music to admirable effect. The sculptures, which so profusely adorn their temples, bear ample witness to their methods of theurgy and medical practice, for which their renown is immortal.

Their sacerdotal system was both exoteric and esoteric, and divided into speculative philosophy and practical magic.

The nature of their Theosophy we have already sketched out in earlier sections, treating of the astronomical religion and the worship of the powers of nature, especially of the generative functions.

In these systems the whole arcana of Egyptian wisdom was to be found. Their hierarchy of Gods, Goddesses, and intermediate spiritual agencies were derived from these systems of worship. All their grandest temples and priestly orders were devoted to the worship of the spiritual Sun, of whom the majestic god of day was but the external and physical type.

Every star, planet and element was impersonated in some form; hence, they found that immense range of correspondences in nature which impressed a sacred idea on so many animals, birds, insects, reptiles and plants.

The different powers and functions of Divinity that they imagined to be manifest in these objects, excited their reverential feelings, not the objects themselves.

The sacred triangle, representative throughout the East of the masculine principle of generation - the Yoni, circle, lozenge, or horizontal line, significant of the feminine principle, these, with crosses of every variety, indicative of the same generative functions, were esteemed by the Egyptians as most sacred symbols and will be found interspersed in all their sculptures.

Isis, the maternal principle in nature, was very commonly represented as a hawk-headed Deity, from the sacredness attached to the idea that the hawk was the bird of the Sun, could ascend to its resplendent heights and gaze with undimmed eye into its blazing beams. The serpent was esteemed in Egypt, as in other oriental lands, as an emblem alike of the Deific principles of good namely: immortality, rejuvenescence, wisdom and health, and of death, terror, destruction and evil.

The famous Anubis, whose emblem so often occurs in Egyptian sculptures, was derived from the Dog Star, whose sign in the ascendant gave notice of the rising of the sacred River Nile, worshiped for its beneficense in irrigating the land.

The Dog Star on this account was esteemed as the door-keeper of the house of life. He held the key of the portals of immortality. He was the invariable attendant of Osiris, the Sun-God and Judge of the Dead; hence, the dog-headed Deity Anubis is so constantly seen in connection with sculptures of religious significance.

The sum of Egyptian Theogony is too well known to send further description here; nor does it materially affect the magical practices of this great people. We shall only, therefore, allude to or describe it, inasmuch as it may throw light upon our special subject.

The belief in Gods, Goddesses, good and evil spirits, the immortality of the human soul, and its transmigrations for purposes of probation and purification, the magical union between the heavens and the earth, the influences of the sidereal heavens upon nature and human destiny, the fall of the spirit from a condition of innocence and bliss, and its ultimate restoration through long series of probationary states - the spiritual powers once enjoyed by the primeval man, now lost, or held latent, and in part only, restored by the practice of a divine life and initiation into the sacred mysteries; these were main ideas which underlaid Egyptian Theosophy, and connected its speculative science with its magical practices.

The history of the Sun-God, the worship of the powers of nature, the trials, discipline, probationary states, purification of the human soul and its ultimate restoration to Deity, were the doctrines taught through gorgeous dramatic representations in the famous mysteries of Isis and Osiris, to obtain a complete knowledge of which many a valuable life was vainly sacrificed. The full sum of magical knowledge was limited to the Kings and Priests, and the latter, according to their worthiness and different grades of rank, were instructed in all that appertained to the subject. The rite of circumcision was an absolute prerequisite to initiation, hence foreigners, who, having arrived at adult age, when this rite might, as it often did, prove fatal, feared to encounter its hazards, and were seldom admitted to the mysteries. The rite of circumcision was symbolized by a circle, and the Egyptian priests wore a consecrated ring in memory of its performance.

The ceremonies of initiation into these mysteries are not, as the would-be mystics of the present day imply, so entirely unknown to this generation. Those who really understand the esoteric meaning of Free Masonry, and the Apocalypse, might discover therein a clue to the ancient mysteries, which few merely exoteric or superficial thinkers dream of.

In the present limited treatise we can do no more than indicate the general tenor of their conduct. They were as follows:

The Neophyte upon being presented to the attendant priest, after having undergone a preliminary series of purifications by bathing, fasting and prayer, was conducted before a masked tribunal, each member of which was arrayed in funeral robes. On every side of the vast hall of assemblage were emblems of death, and sculptures representing the judgment through which departed spirits must pass ere they were permitted to quit the earth and enter upon the next stage of the soul's probation.

The Neophyte's conductor wore the Dog's head mask of Anubis. The chief Judge, representing Osiris, was surrounded with his bench of Assessors after the fashion of an actual judgment, such as was held upon deceased persons ere their remains were consigned to the sepulchre. After the usual funeral rites were ended, the Neophyte was advised that he must now consider himself as dead to the world. All its pursuits, pleasures and attractions must be renounced forever, and an embryotic life must be entered upon, preparatory to the expected new birth which he was to attain through a long series of painful, fatiguing and soul-distracting probations.

As an evidence of the power his Judges exerted over him, the Neophyte was astonished, and in some instances horror-struck to hear one after another - the Assessors starting forth as his accusers, each in turn rehearsing all the errors or shortcomings of his past life, dragging to light even his secret desires, and the hidden things of his inmost nature, thus proving the extraordinary facility with which these great Adepts could clairvoyantly perceive all secrets, and read the characters of men. After this, long list of penances and acts of severest discipline were imposed upon him. During this fearful trial the accused was not permitted the slightest opportunity of rebutting the charges brought against him, the strictest silence having been enjoined, all save the tremendous oaths and self-invoked penalties which he was called upon to pronounce, both on entering and quitting the sacred presence.

From this point the Neophyte was required to abide in certain crypts sculptured over with animals, typical of the criminal propensities to which the soul is addicted, and then instructed in the snares and temptations to which the passions were liable to seduce him. Thus he was taught how these passions might assail him, and in what manner to subdue them by penances, prayers and abstinence. Long hours were spent in total darkness, processes of discipline, and even sever scourgings, dramatic scenes representative of passages in the Sun-God's history, alternations of light and darkness, pleasure and pain, fasting and feasting; some scenes where the senses could be indulged, others where the means of gratification were presented, but the Initiate's strength of resistance was tested; all these were but preliminary exercises through which the emaciated body and tortured soul was required to pass ere he could become a Priest.

Frequent appearances before the awful Assessors of the Soul tested the actual progress he had made.

Sometimes the Neophyte was placed amongst the Judges, and required to pronounce upon the hidden secrets of others' souls, thus calling forth his intuitional powers, and strengthening his clairvoyant perceptions. Periods arrived when the severity of the discipline relaxed, and the tired spirit was magnetized to the somnambulic or trance sleep by powerful Adepts, who, by whispering in his slumbering ear, caused him to behold scenes of beatific beauty and prophetically pointed out the glory of the heavens to which conquerers in these fearful scenes of trail would ultimately attain.

Although gleams of hope, visions of beauty, and short, fitful periods of rest were thus permitted to the harassed spirits of aspirants for Priestly honors and magical knowledge, there were many who sank under the tremendous discipline, and passed to the higher life of the heavens ere its prototype was achieved on earth. Those who survived and triumphantly endured to the end were, as it was said, "often seen to weep, but never to smile." Their youth and all its blossoming fragrance was crushed out, and ever after they were stern, abstracted and isolated ascetics.

One stage of the initiation - probably its happiest phase - consisted in scientific schooling. The Neophyte having been previously prepared in the elements of rudimentary learning, was instructed in astronomy, astrology, medicine, mineralogy, mathematics, geometry and such arts and sciences as were known to that age. Magnetism and psychology were methods not only practiced on himself, but every Initiate was required to practice it on others, and it was during these processes that all the latent powers of the individual were expanded into stupendous growths. If the Neophyte was found to be possessed of natural prophetic endowments, much of the rigor of his probation was abated, and he was rapidly elevated to that higher rank amongst the Priests assigned to prophets, through whom the most transcendent spiritual powers were exhibited. Egyptian scholars have stated to the author that it was because Joseph, the Jew, was found to possess normally the spiritual powers which the Priests were compelled to acquire by art, that he was received into royal favor, and permitted to exercise such unlimited command; also, they alleged that MOses, or, in Egyptian phraseology, Mises (signifying law-giver), was a Priest of Heliopolis, and being naturally endowed with wonderful mediumistic, or spiritual gifts, he had excited the envy and jealousy of inferior orders of the Priesthood. A great feud existed, they said, between the Priests of different Temples and Moses, in his strong reliance on his invincible powers, revolted against the arbitrary authority of some of his oppressors, and hence was banished to the Lepers' quarter, a punishment so abhorrent, that, in revenge, he made his escape, joined the oppressed Israelitish captives, and retaliated upon his tyrannical countrymen by becoming the leader and deliverer of their unhappy bondmen.

One of the chief duties of the Egyptian priesthood was the cure of the sick, and for this purpose the Initiates were instructed in the simple arts of medicine then known and the routine of magnetic manipulations.

Loadstones were in constant use in temple service, and not a few of the most remarkable feats of magic were due to the knowledge of their use.

In therapeutic rites they were frequently held in the hands, applied to different parts of the person, and enclosed in metal balls held by the patients and connected by chains and rings. Thus they were formed into a kind of rude battery, in which the moisture of the body was deemed efficient in producing powerful magnetism. herbs, drugs, charms, amulets and sacred sentences inscribed on scraps of papyrus were often enclosed in metal balls, and applied to different portions of the body. Not unfrequently the unfortunate patients were treated to boluses made of sacred words and occult sentences.

Sometimes their afflicted members were bound up with these talismanic papyri or their foreheads were sealed with them after the fashion of the Pharisaic phylacteries.

Frequent bathings, the use of incense, spices, fragrant fumigations, herb drinks, simple medicaments, charms, amulets. spells, but above all, friction and magnetic manipulations, were the means by which the Egyptians acquired a skill in the mastery of disease, which has never been excelled, perhaps never equalled in any age or country of the earth. One of their most potential means of cure was to induce the famous Temple sleep practiced at a later day so successfully by the Greeks. In this condition - which was in fact somnambulic trance, procured through the magnetism of powerful Adepts - the sleepers were advised by whispers from the well-practiced watchers, to remember when they awoke that all the Gods communicated to them.

In this way dreams were procured or veritable visions seen, in which the patient received prescriptions, directions, and prophetic revelations which the priests never failed to apply, deeming this the most direct and infallible method of communicating with the Gods and insuring a certain cure.

We have said at the commencement of the second part of this volume, that Magnetism and Psychology were the two great columns that upheld the Temple of Spiritism.

Never was this sublime truth better understood and appreciated than by the Priests of Egypt. Their manipulations, knowledge of the occult virtues of stones, plants, vapors and magnets, their psychological powers cultivated up to the very verge where sanity ends and insanity begins, rendered them complete adepts in those noble sciences, of which we, in the nineteenth century, have but the slightest glimpses, but of which few save the inspired Mesmer have realized the full force since the ancient days of which we write. The chief process of initiation into the splendid mysteries depended on these arts. Appeals to the senses through delightful music, gorgeous scenery, dazzling lights, cimmerian darkness, the horrors of impending death, the appearances of frightful forms and ferocious beasts, the compulsion to ascend perilous heights, and descend into awful and interminable depths, the effects of solitude, fasting, scourgings, prayers, the sudden demand to explain the hidden thoughts of others, or execute deeds of daring and hardihood - all these terrible trials and soul disciplines, were means employed to evoke psychological powers of the mightiest kind. This was the far-famed wisdom of the Egyptians, these their mens of evoking all the latent powers of the mind, the triumphs of the spirit, the cure of the sick, and the mastery of the occult forces of nature. It must be admitted that in no nation of antiquity did such severe discipline and such intense intellectual culture precede the initiatory rites of Priesthood. In India the only methods required were the complete subjugation of the senses, and the annihilation of the passions, emotions, and attributes of matter; but the Egyptians were not only taught to elevate the spirit above the realm of matter, they were instructed how to call its highest powers into exercise. Their intellects were cultured by the acquisition of useful knowledge. The highest achievements of art were set before them. Science was hunted down, captured and forced to yield up its most occult revealments to the minds of these accomplished scholars.

Far deeper meanings than the multiplication or divisions of numbers were discovered in mathematics.

The Egyptians determined accurately the numbers which expressed men, Gods, the world and all things in the Universe. The occult principles in geometry were dragged from their lurking places beneath lines, circles and angles, and the true basic principles of world-building were revealed.

For thousands of years, the more than royal powers by which the Priests of Egypt ruled their land and held other nations tributaries to their mental achievements, continued in full force.

For thousands of years this noble Caste retained their integrity, maintained their justly acquired reputation for wisdom, and held their position as the guides of kings, the counsellors of warriors, the dictators of laws, the healers of the sick, Prophets of the future, wonder-workers and interpreters of the will of Deity and the ministrations of spirits.

Always ascetic, silent, true and faithful; their manners were reserved and taciturn. They never smiled nor partook of the amenities of social life and friendly intercourse. Cleanly active, pure and industrious; often tilling their own lands and taking the severest of exercise in sunshine and storm, they seemed to have completely ascended beyond the pains, penalties or interests of the world in their own persons, and only to be concerned for the weal, woe, or elevation of their fellow creatures. A more exalted race of men never won the secrets of eternity from the Gods, or more completely took the kingdom of heaven by storm through their own sublime powers.

Fascinating as are the researches connected with Egyptian magic, it would be useless to pursue them farther in regards their performance in ancient days. Those who pin their faith on Biblical accounts of the trial of magical power between Moses and the Egyptian magicians, perceiving in the recorded triumphs of the one, only the interference of their favorite God, and in the recorded failures of the others, the displeasure of the same partial Deity, will arrive at a very poor and imperfect conception of the truths which underlie the science of Egyptian magic. To the Priest, or in fact to any well-informed inhabitant of Egypt at this very day, the sudden visitation of lice, frogs, red rain colored by fine sand to the appearance of blood, boils, blains, murrain on cattle, or even the rapid approach and disappearance of thick darkness, will be no new phenomena nor require the miraculous intervention of a God to induce them. They may occur any day and at all hours, and they only require an accurate knowledge of atmospheric changes and the natural conditions of the land, to predict their appearance within any given space of time.

Those who have ever witnessed, as thy may do any day in the streets of Cairo, the marvels wrought by Egyptian serpent charmers, those who have seen these itinerant performers wandering through the cities, twining hissing snakes round their bare necks and arms, arranging them in dancing order and forming them into quadrille parties, will not question that Moses and Aaron learnt quite enough of serpent proclivities during a very long residence in ancient Egypt, to contend successfully with serpent charmers a little inferior perhaps to themselves - whilst for the story of the slaughter of the first born of Egypt! - Pshaw! the tale is too old and has been repeated too often to suit the purposes of rival sects, to be believed now of any nation in particular. One thing is certain. If the Pharaoh of the Jewish history did actually cause this hideous drama to be performed in his own land, he only paraphrased an old story long before imported into his nation by the Hindoos, on whose most ancient temple walls, sculptured representations of such a massacre may be found, dating back to periods long before the Jews were known as a people. The same remark applies to a similar tragedy said to have been enacted at a still later date in Judea under the reign of King Herod. If the writers of the New Testament had taken the trouble to acquaint themselves with the true origin of this fable, or had had skill and learning enough to have traced it from Egypt into India, and from most ancient Indian Sculptures into the realm of ancient mythical creations, it is doubtful if they would have permitted the same audacious fiction to have been twice repeated in the same volume.

Premising that we shall continue to write of Osiric mysteries in those of Eluesis; Egyptian Astrology in its succession from Chaldean Priests to Lilly and Dr. Dee; of Egyptian enchantments and fascinations in the magnetic passes of Paracelsus and Mesmer, and of their Priests' clairvoyant perceptions of heaven and earth, and all that in them is, in the equally grand and lucid revelations of a modern seer, whose name is all too little remembered and honored in his own country, but who will ere long be cited in evidence of the undying perpetuity of spiritual gifts, we take leave of a subject which the progress of ages and the diving economy of life assure us, we can never lose sight of in spirit, however the external form of its original may be buried beneath the super-incumbent masses of ruin and decay. The distinguishing feature of Egyptian magic, was the union of occult with natural science, the connection of super-mundane with mundane Spiritism. The specialities of the Egyptian magician were patience, devotion and self-sacrifice, in the acquirement of occult knowledge; skill in its use, purity of life, fidelity to his calling, and educational culture upreared on the foundation of natural gifts. These are the elements by which a true medium becomes an accomplished magician, and it was the Priests who rendered the name of Egypt famous through all time, and their land the synonym of all that is wise in intellect, stupendous in art, elevated in ideality and divine in spiritual science.